Road to nowhere

Mavora Lakes to Mossburn

61km

Woken by Marg at 7, cup of tea to hand, the latest I've slept all trip, after nature called 'Taps' at 9:15PM. First time I've slept in that tent, snug but spacious for two and kit. Also first time for new lightweight insulated mattresses; fantastic, thanks for the recco Merv! Though the wind dropped it had done it's damage and the clearing skies made for a cold night, thermals for nightwear inside bag and liner warm enough but no more. And morning... No hurry on either part to get moving after Marg brought tea back to bed, so we snuggled down, Marg with her diary, me with the blog, enjoying the views from the tent. When I finally got up and walked over to the picnic table to brew up, I was amazed to see it was 9:40!

Breakfast rolls dispatched, we packed up and hit the trail at 10:40. We shared our little camping area with a Canadian couple doing a one year world cycle tour with kids aged about 5 & 7: amazing people. And amazing bikes: tandems with recumbant front, and rear pedaller steering, so the kids ride in front and contribute to the horsepower. They just arrived here, less than 2 hours behind us...

The first camping spot is 3km from the St Nick Road/Mavora Lakes Road junction, but DOC expects campers to go to the top end of the campground to register and pay. Being rules-based, we'll contact DOC and pay, but how many don't? If you want money from folk, you have to make it easy for them to give it you!

Back on the route, the gentle downhill continued, though we were generally pedalling into a cold headwind, albeit less strong than yesterday. When the sun was behind cloud it was pretty chilly, so we soon donned long sleeves over our usual T's. Of course with the now grubby but still matching hi-vis over the top. The scenery now is very pastoral, paddocks of recently shorn sheep interspersed with row upon row of plastic covered cylinders of balage. We'd gone about 10km and stopped to take a photo of a huge number is sheep sheltering in a small gully. We'd been passed by several vehicles (and 5 trail bikes) in each direction when I noticed an appraching car very similar to ours, right down to the bent number plate, and the rego number! Thunderbird 300 had arrived! Not so much Virgil & Gordon, more Lady Penelope and Parker... Funniest was Adrian stopped right beside Marg, and she didn't realise who it was until he was almost out of the car!! LOL or what? They'd seen the blog, and our Spot location, and driven in from Te Anau to take some of our baggage. We offloaded the tent and two 'camping' panniers, and rejigged Marg's right-side pannier to fit on my left. Marg now riding light-bike makes a huge difference. We left Penny & Adrian heading up to look at Mavora Lakes, and continued on our way. 

About another 10km on, we come across 4 trampers sitting in the sun beside the road, so naturally ask if all is ok. Not. They are looking for a lift out to civilisation, because one of the party has a very painful ankle. It occurs to me that T'bird 300 will be coming their way at some time, but there's no way to fit 4 people and baggage, tardis-like as the Honda is. But only one of their number needs assistance, so we volunteer rellies services: just flag down the grey Honda we say. 'We'll tell them the yellow people told us to' they reply. A little further on I get a phone signal, so send a message to P&A about our commitment on their behalf. Have since been informed, mission accomplished!

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. At Centre Hill we met a group of guided-tour cyclists, cherry picking various bits of trails: they'd come in from Lumsden, allegedly punching into the cold wind all the way, and so promised us tailwinds. They lied. The cycle trail from Centre Hill to Mossburn is generally wonderfully smooth and well maintained, running gradually downhill with very few uphill 'bumps'. But it follows myriad meandering streams down the Oreti river plain, and so seems to take forever to get anywhere. This is especially frustrating when you are surrounded by sunlit uplands, and riding into a bitter wind in the chill shade of the clouds. One brief respite allowed us to grab our lunchtime roll, legs dangling off a bridge next to a pretty stream. All too soon the cloud and wind return, so we move on. We get to Mossburn just in time to miss the Dome cafe. We call the campground to find out what kitchen facilities they provide, so we can cook dinner if we pick something up in Mossburn. The kitchen is fully equipped; they neglected to say Mossburn isn't! Nowhere to buy groceries, not even the gas station shop. The cafe staff sunning themselves at the end of the day can only suggest adjourning to await the pub opening and dining there before heading to our cabin, until they remember the cafe/giftshop next door is still open. Not before selling us 2 litres of milk, at cost, provided we have the exact change as they've already cashed up. Next door (Bracken Hall) we enjoy home-made pies: one like a chicken breast wrapped in flakey pastry, none of that white sauce filler with a lump or two of chicken; the venison similarly meat-stuffed with just the right (small) quantity of gravy. A chicken and bacon wrap, sausage roll, and two pieces of ginger slice 'to go' and we're all set for the evening.

The Mossburn Country Park is a short 3km up the Queenstown road, and is wonderful. A chook comes to check us out as we check in, there's a peacock family roaming the manicured camping area, the facilities are spotless. They even provide two cabins set up as lounges/day-rooms. Of course, we have to hire linen and towels because our camping gear is now in Te Anau, but our beds are already made up for us before we arrive. Each cabin also has a jug, toaster, plates, etc, and even a drying cupboard with a heated towel rail; very well set up.